In the News

September 23, 2011 | Moody's evaluation was meant to be apolitical. But Moody's itself doesn't stay above the fray. Last year, the company spent $1.5 million on federal lobbying, and during the first half of this year, it spent $610,000.

June 18, 2011 | Oil company BP continues its slow climb out of political purgatory, as its political action committee on Friday reported donating thousands of dollars in May to federal-level politicians hailing from a variety of states.

July 30, 2010 | A Center for Responsive Politics analysis shows that the biggest contributors to the 49 members of the newly-established congressional Tea Party caucus -- it so far includes only Republican -- are health professionals, retired individuals, the real estate industry and oil and gas interests.
Furthermore, donations from health professionals, oil and gas interests and Republican and conservative groups are, on average, higher for Tea Party caucus members than for members of the House of Representatives in general and even their fellow House Republicans.

June 8, 2010 | The company that owns a pipeline that exploded Monday in north Texas, Houston-based Enterprise Products Company, is on pace spent more on federal lobbying this year than any other year they've lobbied the federal government, according to a Center for Responsive Politics review of lobbying reports.

October 16, 2009 | An initial Center for Responsive Politics analysis has found that sitting members of the U.S. House of Representatives raised $48.2 million from July 1 through Sept. 30, 2009, based on the 336 reports we have in. The mean amount these lawmakers raised was $143,640, and the median amount was $126,680.

June 25, 2009 | Here's a cool tool that brings together data from various parts of OpenSecrets.org to show how much money each current lawmaker has raised from various health-related industries and the health sector overall since 1989 (including President Obama's haul).

February 12, 2009 | The close ties between Rep. John Murtha and a Washington lobbying firm raided by the FBI have put the powerful Pennsylvania Democrat under greater scrutiny. The lobbyists at PMA Group have been Murtha's fifth most generous campaign donor over time, but he is just one of 284 members of the 111th Congress who have collected money from the firm, which specializes in securing federal earmarks for its clients. In total, PMA Group's employees and its political action committee have given current members of Congress $3.4 million since 1989.

November 5, 2008 | The historic election of 2008 re-confirmed one truism about American democracy: Money wins elections. From the top of the ticket, where Barack Obama declined public financing for the first time since the system's creation and went on to amass a nearly two-to-one monetary advantage over John McCain, to congressional races throughout the nation, the candidate with the most money going into Election Day emerged victorious in nearly every contest.

September 29, 2008 | The oil and gas industry, under the spotlight this fall with energy at the forefront of political discourse, isn't hesitating to put some of its record profits into the hands of candidates who support its cause (or those it's seeking to convert). So far this election cycle, the oil and gas industry has given $12.3 million total to congressional candidates. The nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics has identified the candidates who have received the most money from oil and gas interests in this election cycle, and Capital Eye selected a few races to more deeply examine the impact of well-digger dollars on politics.

September 24, 2008 | With few exceptions, incumbents will out-raise their challengers--so far this election cycle, incumbents for Congress have raised nine times more than their challengers, on average, and there is not a single Senate race where the challenger has raised more money than the sitting senator. Although challengers aren't winning the money race on the Senate side, the Center for Responsive Politics has identified 14 House races where the challenger surpassed the incumbent in fundraising after the most recent reporting period, through June.

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